Repeats in the transcribed regions: comprehensive characterization and comparison of Citrus spp.

A large number of expressed sequences tags are available for Citrus spp., which provides an opportunity to understand genomic organization of the transcribed regions. Here, we report a detailed analysis of repetitive elements including tandem repeats (TRs) and transposable elements (TEs) in the transcribed region of the Citrus spp. On average, 22% of the expressed sequence tags (ESTs) contain TRs. The relative density of TR classes is highly taxon-specific. For instance, Citrus limonia has a high relative density of mononucleotide repeats, whereas dinucleotide repeats are rare. The proportions of 2–6, 7–30 and 31–50 bp repeats were almost identical in all studied species except for C. limonia and C. limettioides. We found that<1% of the citrus ESTs have a similarity with transposable elements. Transcriptional activity of transposable element families varied even within the same class of elements. A high proportion of transcriptional activity was observed for gypsy-like TEs compare to other TE classes. While TEs are relatively rare, TRs are abundant elements in ESTs of citrus. The high proportion of TRs that have a unit size longer than 6 bp raises the question about a possible functional or evolutionary role of these elements.